The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Reviewed by Ruth Paget

The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

One of the main reasons I have always eaten vegetables, grains, eggs, and dairy products is that they provide a huge nutritional value at a small price compared to red meat, which I eat once a month to save money as part of the Mediterranean Diet. 

Being able to easily follow the Mediterranean Diet is one of the reasons I like living in Salinas, California for access to the 200+ organic vegetables and fruits that grow here. (Salinas calls itself “Americas Salad Bowl.) 

San Francisco dwellers also like the organic food options available just two hours south of them in Salinas. The Bay Area’s love for produce is reflected in The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook edited by Michael Bauer and Fran Irwin. I

have made recipes from this cookbook over thirty years as part of the Mediterranean Diet. Despite rising food prices, these dishes are still relatively inexpensive to make compared to red meat. 

Some of the cookbook’s great produce recipes follow: 

-puréed artichoke bisque made with artichoke hearts (can use frozen), potatoes, and garlic 

-chilled cucumber soup made with puréed cucumber, garlic, and yogurt

-mixed greens soup with fennel-scented croutons made with spinach, Swiss chard, mustard greens, and kale, which are boiled and puréed with seasonings 

-sorrel and potato soup (can also be made with young spinach and dandelion greens) 

-fava bean soup made with onion, potatoes, and heavy cream (can also be made with lima beans) 

-yellow squash soup made with cumin and salsa 

-mustard-celery salad made with 3 cups of diced celery 

-fennel coleslaw made with green and red cabbage, carrots, and fennel 

-macaroni with wild mushroom gratin and Parmesan cheese – worth the price of the cookbook for this recipe alone 

-pasta with red peppers, greens, white beans, garlic, and lemon zest 

-braised bitter greens 

-roast-garlic mashed potatoes 

-chard and red potato gratin 

-oven-fried sweet potatoes 

-creamed spinach with bacon and onions 

-parsnip and potato purée If you love vegetable dishes, 

The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook edited by Michael Bauer and Fran Irwin will greatly appeal to you, especially if you are looking for recipes that will help you follow the Mediterranean Diet. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Italian Focaccia Flatbread Economics by Ruth Paget

Italian Focaccia Flatbread Economics by Ruth Paget 

Even if you buy fresh herbs and produce like garlic, onions, and tomatoes at the supermarket, making focaccia (Italian flatbread) is relatively inexpensive. However, if you use herbs that grow at home to make focaccia, the savings increase exponentially. 

Carol Field provides many recipes in her cookbook Foccacia: Simple Bread from the Italian Oven that can save a family a lot of money, if it is eaten once or twice a week. It can also be used as a teaching moment with children as the French royal tutor Fénélon would say. 

Field writes in her introduction that the most famous focaccia comes from Genoa located in the coastal Liguria region between the French border in the north and Tuscany where Florence is located in the south.  

The basic dough for Genoa’s focaccia flatbread is made with flour, water, yeast, and sometimes olive oil and white wine. The yeast dough rises twice before being brushed with olive oil and baked. Field counsels home cooks to use a baking stone to generate high heat for crunchy crust. 

Field writes that Italians often use a dough starter called a biga in Italian made of water, flour, and yeast that is allowed to ferment before mixing it in with the regular dough. The biga gives the final product extra flavor and a chewy interior. The Genoese often add white wine to the dough and dimple it, so they can form little pools of warm olive oil, sea salt, and chopped herbs. 

Some of Field’s recipes are so easy and delicious that you want to ask yourself, “Did I really not know how to make this bread before?” 

The easiest recipes make a nice meal with salad and vinaigrette dressing, cheese, fruit salad, and white wine like pinot grigio or homemade lemonade. 

Several recipes that families might like follow:

-basil topped focaccia 

-focaccia with rosemary, oil, and salt 

-focaccia with garlic and tomato topping 

-focaccia with garlic and herb topping 

-schiacciata covered in caramelized onions 

(schiacciata is the word for focaccia in Florence) 

-schiacciata with slices of tomato and shredded basil 

Carol Field has recipes for more elaborate focaccia, but the ones listed above illustrate what I consider the Italian genius for living well on a budget thanks to being highly skilled, organized, and well educated.

Field’s Focaccia: Simple Bread from the Italian Oven belongs on every kitchen bookshelf. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Refettorio Ambrosiano Recipes from Milan, Italy by Ruth Paget

Refettorio Ambrosiano Recipes from Milan, Italy by Ruth Paget 

After attending an expo on world hunger in Milan (Italy), chef Massimo Bottura and other world famous chefs used the surplus food available in Milan to make meals for the homeless at the city’s Refettorio Ambrosiano that qualify as no food waste, delicious, nutritious, and economical to make. 

The Milan Refettorio Ambrosiano can operate thanks to help from markets and farms that provide: 

-less than perfect looking, but still good produce 

-produce with 2 or 3 days left to sell that cannot keep for a long time 

-organizing food in crates for storage and delivery at the donor site 

-people to drive the produce from the donor site to the refettorio 

-refrigerated pantries to deal with Milan’s heat at the refettorio 

Five of the stand-out, no food waste recipes in the Bread is Gold cookbook are economical to make with fresh ingredients for the home cook as well: 

*Summer vegetables with bean broth and croutons – The broth is made with water and boiled Parmesan cheese rinds that are removed before the beans are added in. The beans and broth are puréed. Place a variety of sautéed summer vegetables on top of the bean broth. Scatter seasoned croutons made from hard bread on top of the vegetables. 

The boiled Parmesan rinds could be fed to pigs as part of a circular economy around the cheese.

*Chilled cauliflower soup – Boil cauliflower with milk and salt. Purée the soup and refrigerate. Add cream and serve. Use less liquid to make a creamy sauce for warm vegetables or dressing for salad.

Other winter vegetables could be used in this recipe: broccoli, carrots, celery root, rutabagas, turnips, parsnips, or a combination of these. For extra flavor, you could boil the vegetable with a sautéed onion. 

*Chilled yogurt soup – Mix yogurt, vegetable stock (I make mine from reconstituted dehydrated mushrooms), canned chickpeas, canned lentils, salt and pepper, and olive oil together. (I would purée everything and then chill the soup.) 

*Green bean salad – Mix green beans, fresh cheese (mozzarella, but burrata could also be used) and charred Savoy cabbage together and drizzle it all with Balsamic vinegar. 

*Panada bread soup This simple soup is made by boiling Parmesan cheese rinds with water and removing them before adding cubes of hard bread. The bread and cheese broth are then puréed and served warm. 

Massimo Bottura and other famous chefs put together Bread is Gold recipes to solve hunger in Milan, Italy by reducing food waste. In the process, they put together recipes that everyone can use to stretch money, making Bread is Gold a good book to buy. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Eating Crunchy Fried Shrimp by the Pacific at The Brass Tap in Marina, California by Ruth Paget

Eating Crunchy Fried Shrimp by the Pacific at The Brass Tap in Marina, California by Ruth Paget 

I have to admit that my favorite bar food is fish and chips, but when beer-battered fried shrimp is available, I always order that. The Brass Tap in Marina, California offers both fish and chips and deep-fried shrimp in basket meals. 

The night my family went to The Brass Tap, my husband Laurent and I ordered the fried shrimp basket with French fries and coleslaw. Our daughter, Florence Paget, ordered the fish and chips basket. The coleslaw was creamy with pepper added and there were lots of fries. We all liked the basket meals and thought the amount of fish and shrimp was substantial. 

Both of these meals taste great in a cold, salty night breeze off the Pacific Ocean. The doors were open as we came in letting in the breeze and fog. There is seating in upholstered chairs and sofas outside with fire pits and colored lights overhead as well. 

I just love eating deep-fried shrimp dunked in spicy cocktail sauce and fries dunked in plenty of ketchup in weather like this. As I wrote that, I know full well that I am enticing East Coasters to dine at The Brass Tap, which offers those items at a reasonable price with 140 beers on tap. I had iced tea with my meal, but in the past I have drunk English Newcastle Brown Ale with fish and chips, and Czech Pilsner Urquell with fried shrimp. 

For diners looking for variety in fish and seafood, The Brass Tap has other options that look good including: 

-Boom Boom Shrimp in addition to other appetizers like Buffalo Cauliflower and Fried Green Beans  

-Blackened cod tacos 

-a Tap Salad with shrimp, lettuce, cheddar jack cheese, smoked bacon, tomatoes, and red onion (This salad shows off everything that is great about the Monterey County region.) 

The Brass Tap is a neighborhood bar by California State University Monterey Bay. Faculty and staff eat here along with older students. The music is slightly loud with a youthful ambience. On the weekends, there is a live DJ and karaoke. 

I think The Brass Tap is fun and offers the fish and seafood I like. The other food items are multicultural with items like BBQ wings, tacos, pizza, and Asian BBQ sandwiches on the menu. 

The Brass Tap is located right off Highway 1 down the street by Starbucks and close to Marina’s Century Theatres with lots of parking and good eating. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France 

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German Celery Root Economics by Ruth Paget

German Celery Root Economics by Ruth Paget 

I have to admit that when I first saw sellerieknolle, celery root, in a grocery store outside Stuttgart (Germany) when I lived there for five years, my first thought was “Ew. What is this?” as I turned one over in my hand. 

Celery root looks like a bulbous turnip with splotchy brown skin. I did not buy it, but looked it up on various health sites at home and saw that celery root is rich in fiber; vitamins B6, C, and K; has several antioxidants that help remove free radicals that may cause cancer; and has significant amounts of phosphorous, potassium, and manganese. I read that its flavor is mild, has white flesh, and can be used like a potato when peeled. Celery root is also inexpensive – definitely a great value for what is in it.

Next trip to the Edeka grocery store, I bought celery root and put it in soup that I puréed with an immersion blender. I also ate it as part of restaurant meals during our stay in Germany. Recently, I found some German recipes using celery root in a Kindle cookbook called Hello! 365 Celery Recipes by Ms. Fruit for .99 cents. My favorite German recipes from this book follow: 

 Bayerische Schweinbraten (Bavarian Pork Roast): I first ate this meal in the town of Eschenbach outside the US military base in Vilseck (Germany) close to the Czech Republic border. The roast goes very well with Czech Pilsner Urquell beer. 

The recipe in the book calls for mixing mustard with seasonings like paprika and caraway seeds and spreading this mixture over the pork before browning it on all sides. Then, you sauté onions, celeriac , and carrots in the frying pan you used to brown the pork roast before adding them to the pork along with some water. 

You bake the pork roast for 2 ½ to 3 hours and make gravy with the baking juices and puréed vegetables, if you would like The result is fork tender. The pork roast I ate in Eschenbach came with sweet braised red cabbage and two large dumplings. I loved being able to eat a Bavarian Sunday lunch in Germany and having the recipe to recreate this delicious large family dish here in California. 

In Stuttgart, I did more mundane dishes with celery root like celery root and potato purée, which the cookbook makes with the addition of cream after boiling the vegetables. I add butter to this dish and cream, because fat helps ward off cold weather as I learned during my Michigan upbringing. 

Another winning recipe from this cookbook is Chef John’s Root Vegetable Gratin. A German secret is to sauté vegetables before putting into bake in a gratin. Chef John’s recipe calls for potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, celery root, and parsnips flavored with garlic, butter, chicken broth, cream, and Parmesan cheese. 

There is also a great recipe for Creamy German Potato Soup made with onions, carrots, celeriac, tomatoes, and potatoes that is blended till smooth with an immersion blender. 

Finally, a popular vorspeisen, appetizer, is made with celery root, onion, vinegar, sugar, and rapeseed oil. This simple recipe tastes perky all year round. I often ate this salad before eating pork medallion meals in restaurants. 

I would wholeheartedly say that Hello! 365 Celery Recipes by Ms. Fruit on Kindle for .99 cents is a terrific buy. Economical celery has multiple uses in many cultures, which Ms. Fruit documents well. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Creating a Historical Ghost Tour as a Gig Job Reposting by Ruth Paget

 A fellow alum from the University of Chicago created a ghost tour for her hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa that might interest other entrepreneurs - 

Ghost Tour Article from UChicago Magazine

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying Francr

Prime Pork Chop Dinner at Pub's Prime Rib in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Prime Pork Chop Dinner at Pub’s Prime Rib in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

One of the best times of year to order a pork chop meal at a locals’ favorite restaurant like Pub’s Prime Rib in Salinas, California is October when the weather turns from very hot to very cool. 

This is the time when areas with strong animal husbandry traditions separate the spare, weaker hogs and cattle for slaughter from the animals that will be kept for breeding over winter. What this means for the consumer is the abundance of pork products in fall like brats, sausage, bacon, and pork chops. One classic example of how this seasonal abundance was used in Germany is the Munich Oktoberfest, which was started to celebrate a wedding with many guests. 

Pork chops made from freshly killed hogs are very tender and some say more flavorful than pork that is preserved in various forms to last throughout the winter. What is true for hogs is traditionally true for cattle as well. 

With that backstory told to my family, my husband Laurent, our daughter Florence Paget, and I set out for a delicious meal at Pub’s Prime Rib downtown. Pub’s was established in the 1940s, and I like to think that John Steinbeck ate there. 

Our favorite family writer, Florence Paget, and her dad began their meals with French onion soup that was full of savory onions with gruyère cheese melted over the top of the bowl and down the sides just like you see in French cookbooks. It was a golden delicious stew. 

I started my meal with a wedge salad made with cold and crunchy iceberg lettuce with lightly salted blue cheese dressing, chopped fried bacon, and chopped, succulent tomatoes from the blistering hot summer even in Monterey County. I like this salad, because it is a nice contrast in texture, taste, and cooking method – raw. Good appetizers are supposed to contrast in this way with a main dish. 

For our main dishes, Florence had the prime rib with baked potatoes and vegetables. Laurent had lobster ravioli. Both of these dishes came with a large dinner salad beforehand. Laurent ordered seafood in a month with an “r” in it, which the French say are good months for seafood due to colder water. Florence was getting prime rib from freshly killed October cattle. 

I ordered the pork chop dinner, which I considered a German hauptgeriichte, or main dish from elite cuisine: 

 -a one-inch thick, large pork chop that came with caramelized apples, roasted baby potatoes, and sautéed spinach in a rosemary-mustard red wine sauce. 

The pork chop was easy to cut and the lovely side dishes filled me up, so I did not order dessert, but the crème brulée and New York Cheesecake both looked tempting. 

Pub’s Prime Rib in Salinas, California is a cozy place for dinner with a full bar in front and a good choice of meat and seafood dinners. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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